Hello!

DD is only just one and she has always been an energetic bubba. Day naps have been a struggle from the start but when she started crawling at around 6 months we finally embraced scream-free naps and she gradually went from two 30-40 minute naps to a total of around 2.5 hours per day (both naps combined). But lately she is really fighting her afternoon nap. Every second or third day she won't sleep at all in the afternoon- she plays in her cot for up to two hours then I get her up before it gets too late in the day.The other days she plays for a while, falls asleep around 3-3:30 then I have to wake her at 4-4:30 or it's too late and she won't want to go down at night until it is ridiculously late. Already 4pm is too late as she fights her night sleep when that happens.

she is usually awake between 6:30-7am, I used to put her down between 9:30-10 then about 2pm. This was a baby-led routine and it worked well as she fell asleep on the dot at those times and her longer nap was in the morning with a shorter nap of 40 mins or so in the afternoon.

In light of the afternoon nap issues I've tried two things- putting her down earlier in the morn (9am) so that she has more awake time before her afternoon nap; and pushing the morning nap out to 10:30 in the hope she will nap longer and thus not need an afternoon nap. Neither have worked. I'd love some advice- am I missing something obvious? Is she really ready for one nap? She does get tired and ratty in the afternoon, currently around 3-3:30 but that's too late for a day nap.